Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - Why Christians Must Stop Hiding From Politics [Featuring Tanner DiBella]

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

For years, Christians were told to keep their faith out of politics—but what if silence is exactly what’s costing us the culture? Pastor Allen Jackson sits down with Tanner DiBella of The American Council to discuss how California churches pushed back during COVID, why Christians must engage the public square, and how biblical leadership can shape communities for good. They explore the church’s growing fear of politics, the difference between political idolatry and biblical engagement, and why local leadership matters now more than ever. From school boards to state legislatures, this conversation is a powerful reminder that faith was never meant to stay inside church walls.

When you read scripture, it is bountiful in examples of men and women who leveraged political institutions for the betterment of their fellow man. You look at people like Esther, Moses, Paul, Mordecai, all these examples of people who engaged in politics for the sake of their faith, but also for the common good. Politics is a vehicle for good. Tell me a little bit what you mean by that. Romans 13. We know the mission statement of government. It is to rest. strain evil and promote the good. Politics is not the problem. A vision for politics is the problem. So many Christians have bought the lie that because we believe in God, we somehow are disqualified from seeking the betterment of our neighbors and really engaging in politics. Welcome to culture and Christianity. I'm excited about my guest today. Tanner DeBella,

you are evidence that there are Christians in California. I like to say that I am from Babylon, visiting Tennessee this week. From Central California, the Sacramento area? From Sacramento, yeah. You are, let me see, I've got the list here. You're the founder and president of the American Council, but you're an author, a pastor, so fully engaged in church, but God has expanded your vision.

Absolutely. That's what cut my attention and really why I think our audience will enjoy this, because the whole point of this podcast, and much of what we do in ministry is trying to get our faith outside the walls of the church to not gather on the weekends and do theoretical Bible studies, but to find ways to live out our faith in the 21st century. Yeah.

And you were doing that in some remarkable ways. You grew up in church. Yeah. And realized that there were some topics that churches were avoiding and decided to do something about it. Yeah. Born and raised in the same church. My grandparents were pastors. My mom's in ministry and leadership.

And so it seemed like a family business. And it wasn't until 2020 when COVID hit that things began to change for the global church, but in my own life on... For a lot of family businesses. Yeah. Asking the question, what is the church's responsibility and mandate in this moment? Very good. So tell us a little bit about what the American Council is and how you were attracted to that whole idea. It's pretty interesting.

Yeah. Well, I started in ministry at the age of 17 and never had an intention to get involved in politics. Loved politics, always had a desire to engage in it, but never imagined myself become. I mean, a political engager full-time, and went to UC Davis, one of the most progressive schools in California in political science. It would have been a unicorn in this place. Still came out a conservative and Christian, so that was wonderful. I went and got a master's degree in executive leadership and then finishing my doctorate right now. But always imagine myself staying in ministry.

And fast forward to 2020, California, Governor Gavin Newsom shut the doors at the church. church and in my church, destiny under the leadership of Greg and Kathy Farrington, first four weeks, we were compliant and we shut down and did ministry and church online. But I can remember being in a living room with them four weeks in and just seeing tears roll down my pastor's face and saying, I don't think I can do this anymore. I cannot pastor my flock from a distance. And so they made a decision to reopen the doors of their church in defiance of Governor Gavin Newsom. Well, excuse me, just a bit to step back into the, that window. You know, they told us there was a virus coming from Wuhan and that millions of us were

going to die and that if we would shelter in place for a couple weeks, we could flatten the curve. Two weeks to slow the spread. And we'd all go back to normal. And we got into that. And what we were watching and what they were saying didn't line up anymore. Yeah. And so there were a few courageous people across the country in churches and health care and other places that began to say, wait a minute. And so your pastor was one of those people. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and there was a lot of lot of confusion in the church at that time. People didn't know what to do and what to think and how to lead in that moment. And as I witnessed, my lead pastors demonstrate such courage in that in California, of all places, you know, having conversations of what happens when the police show up and had a game

plan if, you know, our pastor got arrested on a Sunday morning. And we had protesters try and break in through the doors of the church and death threats. And I'm seeing all this unfold. and I began to pray of, I'm seeing my pastors demonstrate such courage, such boldness in the face of such opposition. What is my role in this? And I felt the Spirit of God tell me that I want you to engage in the church and how to help people think clearly and lead well in the public responsibility and public square space. And so we launched at the... That's just a small job. That's just a small job.

And I had no idea of what it was going to become. But at the height of COVID, we incorporated, formed a nonprofit, and myself, a historian, and a Christian college president decided we're going to start this with a class called We the People. And it was 11 weeks of American history, Christian ethics, political engagement. And we launched in April, had 1,300 people show up during the height of COVID. And we walked away from that with just this burning sense that people want. want to engage. They want to know their history and they want to know how to engage biblically in such a confusing season. And it kind of just took on from there. We started running people in the local church to run for office and engaging people on bills and legislation and then

teaching people how to think thoughtfully about public discourse and really what the Bible has to say about government. It has a lot to say. And so that's what we do. So you had a great response from within your community of faith and put some candidates out in the public square and some have gotten elected. But I suspect that I don't know. So I'm going to ask a question. I don't know the answer to. I doubt the entire community just cheered with great joy at that attitude and that expression. How did the larger community respond? Well, you know, we had many from the church community that were excited, felt mobilized in that moment. But there were many people in our community who hated what we were doing.

And there was a season when we first launched where we had to hire security for myself, got death threats, all the labels, recycled lines that I'm sure you've gotten over the years, you know, Christian Nationalists. My favorite was the Christian Taliban and protests at our events.

We had Charlie Kirk come out for our first annual gala and had people try and break into the main ballroom. And it has been a season of opposition, but it was a season of tremendous growth. growth and fruit really helping people become leaders in the political space. And it has been incredible to see what God has done. We have trained, recruited, and supported 800 candidates on the West Coast since 2020. 800.

800. That's amazing. So just to clarify, because the great fear is that we're trying to dictate, you know, how people should practice their religion. What color grape juice to use for communion? and how many children to put in a Sunday school class and, you know, all the things. And I don't imagine that's your goal. I would imagine it's to bring like a biblical worldview into public policy.

But maybe you clarify a little bit. Yeah, we are not in the business of coercion. And we believe that the true gospel demands a choice. And out of that, we want to give people a biblical worldview on politics. but we don't tell people how to vote or how to live. We give people, this is what the Bible says, and it's ultimately their decision on how they want to respond to truth. But we've gotten called all the labels

and trying to force our religion on people. It has nothing to do with coercing people from our religious worldview. We know through American history that this has been a Christian nation. And when you look at places like Jeremiah 297 or Judges 6, Romans 13, there's a really clear demonstration of what the Bible has to say about you and I as Christians, as Christian leaders, advocating for society for the common good and for human flourishment.

And so that's where our posture comes from. In fact, I think the clearest understanding of Scripture is we are called to engage our culture. Yeah. Not just to teach a historical faith. Yeah. You know, this podcast is made possible because of sponsors. And one of our sponsors is preserve gold. And I appreciate their partnership with us.

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I guess that's a pretty target-rich environment. If we can do it in California, we can do it anywhere. I thought, be one way of putting it. So what was this response from churches? I'm sure everybody doesn't cheer. Yeah, you know, there's, and I'm sure you see this too, year in this space is there's these two worldviews that really emerge dominant views, and one is apathy and one is idolatry. And we have seen both in rolling colors as we've engaged in this process.

And a lot of churches, when they hear the word politics, they cower and cringe at it. And that really comes from a place of fear and apathy. You know, I'm reminded of judges. Gideon has just died. And one of his sons wants to rule and he goes and kills all of his brothers except one and his brother recounts a story through this very beautiful story of the trees of Lebanon and the trees of Lebanon want to elect a leader they want someone to rule over them and so they go to the olive tree and ask the olive tree olive tree will you rule over us and the olive tree says no I make olive oil I'm not going to hold sway over the trees and then they go to the fish and tree and ask the fig tree, will you roll over us? And the fig tree says, no, I make jam and I'm not going to

rule sway over the trees of Lebanon. And so then they go to the vine. And it continues. And as the story progresses, they end up talking to a thornbush and ask the thornbush, thornbush, will you roll over us? And the thornbush says, yes, take shelter in my shade, but if not, let the fire consume the trees of Lebanon. And it's a gripping story of what happens when Christians say no to God's mandate, his commission, is calling for us to engage in public leadership. And so we see that, we see the apathy, but then we also see the other side, which is idolatry. You know, our politics should be downstream from discipleship. It should be downstream from a biblical worldview, not the other way around.

I'm reminded of Daniel 6, where King Darius, at the influence of his counsel, decides to make an edict that no man can seek counsel or petition gods or other men except King Darius for 30 days. And what does Daniel do? I love his personality. He runs upstairs, opens the window, and begins to pray out loud towards Jerusalem. and it's a rejection of creating idols out of politics, political institutions, political figures. And so we have to reject both, but there is this mandate, the Jeremiah 29 seek the welfare of the city that I've exiled you to, where we have a responsibility to seek the peace, the prosperity, the deliverance, the order of the city, of the nation that we have been exiled to. And so we have churches that meet us in that place. And they want to engage. They want to lean into this moment because they understand that if the church does not disciple,

their congregation, politics will, news will, social media will, political platitudes, will, Hollywood will. And so they have engaged. But you always see those two fringe sides that are either apathetic or they create an idol out of politics. And I look at that. I look at that moment, and Daniel shows us not to bow, not to create an idol out of politics. But judges, I think, teaches us not to hide from politics. Well, Daniel also didn't make an idol out of comfort and convenience.

Yeah. Because there was very little about his life that it was comfortable or convenient. Yeah. And he had every opportunity to choose that. Well, I'm listening to you talk. I'm reminded of that tragic scene in the Gospels where Pilots stands before the crowd in Jerusalem. Barabbas and Jesus. And he gives them a vote.

He said, you get to choose. And there was a crowd gathered, but it was still a small sample of the larger population. And they said, give us Barabbas. And it was politically expedient. If they choose Jesus, the king of the Jews, it'll bring the wrath of Rome and loss and the short term suffering. And so they choose a violent insurrectionist. and I think in some respects it's pretty, you know, the Christians for two millennia have blamed the Jews for what they said in the street that day.

Yeah. That they rejected Jesus. Yeah. But it seems to me that we have a long history of being given a vote and we choose violent insurrectionists. Yeah. Rather than have the courage to choose our faith in that public square. Yeah. We've had lots of people run for president of the United States who were good, solid Christian people. I mean, Dr. Ben Carson, Mike Huck, I can think of a, and we don't choose them.

No. We choose violent insurrectionists that lead us away from God. And there's a lot of hypocrisy in the church about blaming other people for their bad choices. So what I love what you're doing is you're reminding is that we have a role to play and that we shape our future. We can cooperate with God. You use a line and I want to bring you back to it, you know, that politics is a vehicle for good. Yeah. Tell me a little bit what you mean by that, because I believe it. You know, and I don't think we're either Christian or political. I don't want to replace Jesus with the government. Yeah. But I do believe politics can be a vehicle for good and bring freedom and liberty to people.

Yeah, I think when you read scripture, it is bountiful in examples of men and women who leveraged political institutions, political proximity for the betterment of their fellow men. man, you look at people like Esther, who use proximity to power to preserve an entire generation of people. You look at Moses. You look at Paul, you have all of these examples. You look at Mordecai, all these examples of people who engaged in politics for the sake of their faith, for the protection of their people, but also for the common good. And so when we talk about our engagement and what does it look like? Again, I said it at the beginning, but I think one of the most beautiful demonstrations of this is Jeremiah chapter 29. You were just with the Bartons, and they talked about this at length, and I loved how they used it. But we all know Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11. But just four verses

before that, you see this example, the story of the people of God who are in exile. They are in a culture and in geography. They have no business being, and they don't want to be there. And I like to think they probably imagine a Elijah moment where they're swept up into the air and they're going to be rescued. And so they ask God, what do we do? And his response is so simple, but so profound, I want you to build homes. I want you to plant gardens. I want you to have children, and I want your children to have children. Increase in number. Do not decrease. And as he continues, he says, pray for the welfare of the nation that you have been exes. to for in its welfare, you will find your own.

Welfare, that word, we have a modern concept of what that means. We're not talking a handout, but we are talking about shalom. Welfare can be translated in Hebrew to the word shalom, which is, we're not just talking about political stability. We are talking about order. We are talking about prosperity. We are talking about peace. We're talking about deliverance.

And how else can we do that? then through an institution that God created, Romans 13, we know the mission statement of government. It is to restrain evil and promote the good. That is the mission of the state. And so you and I as Christians, we can look at that and say, well, this is a vehicle to see the promotion of good and the restraint of evil in our neighborhoods, in a state like California, in a nation like America, and through the world. It is a vehicle. in which we see human flourishing. Absolutely.

Absolutely. New Testament idea too. When Paul says to Timothy, pray for those in authority over you. Yeah. That you can live peaceful and quiet lives. Yeah. You know, that's the purpose of government is that we can, we have an opportunity to advance the gospel. Yeah.

Amen. And if we stay out of it, we will lose that opportunity. You've got some amazing success stories. Yeah. Can you share a couple of those with us? Because it's. Yeah. Well, we're really passionate about building public leaders.

and specifically in local elections. We've been involved in local state and federal elections, but I have a real burden for local leaders in school boards, city councils. And the year that we first launched, there was a pastor in my church, our family pastor, who had a kid in one of our public school districts and began to feel God pushing her to run for local school district.

But it was a large feat. It was a milestone to come across, because she would be running against a 31 year progressive incumbent. 31 years. She's never had any political experience. She's never served in educational leadership. And she wants to represent not only her kid, but all the families in the community. And so she decided I'm going to run, but I'm going to need your help.

And so we mobilized the church. We started raising money for her. We got all her branding, signs, website, flyers. We hosted fundraisers. We did mailers. Mobilized the church around her. And she beat that incumbent by double digits. First time in 31 years.

And now she is the president of that school district and has led that school district for five years. We flipped that entire school district the next election. We have, like I said, 800 candidates that we have trained and supported. But it's just numbers until you look at the people behind those numbers. We have flipped probably 30, 35 school districts in California. But one of the most impactful stories for me came in a state ledge seat named Joshua Hoover, godly Christian man, and he decided to run for state assembly in California as a Christian. That's a rare story in the Golden State.

And so he decided to run, and we put all of our resources behind him, again, held fundraisers, He went and spoke at churches in our network, did mailers forum, got volunteers, did door knocking canvassing. And I met home watching the TV one day. And it's, you know, on a low volume and I'm reading a book. And all of a sudden I hear the name Tanner DeBella. It's a commercial. So I'm watching the news. And I look up and I see my face with the red X over it.

And his opponent, who was an incumbent in California, put $2 million into advertising against Joshua Hoover saying he is supported by this anti-abortion, Christian nationalist, extremist pastor, Tanner DeBella, but $2 million into it. And I immediately called Josh Hoover and I said, what do you need? And so we continue to support him. He was the only seat in the state legislator that got flipped that year. And this all translates obviously to leaders. And some people ask, well, what is the benefit in getting pastors and Christians elected to local and state office?

I'll tell you, there was a pastor in Loomis, California, a local suburb of where I live. He has a progressive church. And I had a parent call me one day who has a student in the local district and said, I just found out that this pastor is on campus and they have created after school clubs. And where they are teaching kids who are curious about their gender expression on. binders and hormones. The churches, the pastor of the church, launched campus clubs, after-school campus clubs, helping students navigate transitioning. Unbeknownst to the parents, we saw a flyer of him telling the students, tell your parents you're going to the library after school. And so we did some digging and we found out that he

had a club in every school district in our county. Hundreds of kids. Well, we have just flipped the majority of those school districts. And so I started calling trustees and school board presidents letting them know this was happening. And over the course of six months, he was removed and banned from every school campus in that county. That is the fruit of getting good, principled men and women to leadership who can hear something like that and respond with clarity and with conviction that this is something that we're not going to stand for. We're going to protect our children. We're going to protect our families and prevent somebody like this from being on a campus.

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will be dependent upon. That would be a God thing. God's moving in the earth, and we can be a part of it by what we put on our fork and not just the pills we take. You know, as I listen to you talk, I'm sure there's some people that will hear this and think this is a radical approach

or something far outside the standard or the norm. And the reality is for the first 200 years or so of our nation, what you're describing was normal behavior. Yeah. That we wanted people in public office that held biblical worldviews. Yeah. In fact, the founders made it really clear that it was a qualification in so many ways. I mean, there's just multiple examples of that.

We just did the Bartons all weekend, so I don't rehash all the history. But what you're describing is, far more in line with the pattern of behavior that was in place in America for 200 years or so. Yeah. And it's really the contemporary church, just recent decades, where the church has stepped away from that and said, we'll talk about our history, but we won't talk about what it means to be salt and light in the current season. Yeah. And so you sound a bit like you're a radical, but you're a radical like the church has always been a radical.

Yeah. Well, you know, it's so funny. I hear a lot that people love to scream at me, separation of church and state. And I believe in a version of that. It's not their version. But what I find it so interesting is in these conversations as we're talking about, what is the relationship between a spiritual conviction and engagement in politics? The people that love to shout that out and use that as canon fodder,

my question back to them is, do you vote? Are you engaged in legislation and what's happening in the school boards? If the answer is yes, you're doing that with a moral standard. It may be a pagan one. It may be a godless one, but it is a moral standard. You are using your worldview and you are trying to place that worldview on the rest of society every time you go to the ballot box. And so when we're talking about faith in context of engaging in politics,

I really believe that there has been a lie that has been disseminated and believe. in the modern church that your faith somehow has to stay at the door when you begin to engage in public discourse or voting an election or running for office or going to a school board meeting when in reality I actually believe that it is a strategy to silence the church. It is a strategy to say, because I disagree with your politics, I'm going to make you believe that you are a radical extremist whose beliefs, whose convictions does not belong in politics. Politics is not the problem. A vision for politics is the problem. And so many pastors, so many Christians have bought the lie that because we believe in God, we somehow are disqualified from seeking the

betterment of our neighbors, of our communities, and really engaging in politics. Well, we have watched for several decades now the purposeful, intentional organization and forwarding of worldviews that stand contrary to Christianity gain increasing influence over so many of the institutions and organizations that have shaped our culture, whether it was Boy Scouts or, I mean, it's just an endless list. And somehow Christians have watched that and still remained disengaged, as if it were inappropriate. appropriate. And the truth is for people are afraid that we're going to have a unified expression of what it means to be a Christian, you know, like the Church of England. I've spent my whole life in the church world. That kind of unity doesn't exist. No. You know, if we can organize around the fundamental principles that Jesus was the son of God and the Bible is the authoritative word of God, that's an amazing beginning. We're not trying to dictate practices of faith. We're simply saying the Bible, holds out to us some general principles for human beings and our social interaction together that makes the world a better place.

And we're not apologetic for that. No. And we want that to be expressed in every aspect of our lives, from the schools to our universities to the public square. We have a right to be there just as much as every other worldview does. Yeah. Amen. So I think one of the things you do that is intriguing to me is you have a leadership pipeline

strategy. Yeah, you know, we're not interested in building good candidates. I'm not interested in building better Republicans or better Democrats. I really have a conviction in building good, better leaders. So a number of years ago, we launched a leadership academy for those, whether in the local, state, or federal space, that want to run for office. But they want to learn how to do it, how to do it well, but how to do it in a way that honors God. And so we began training candidates on the practicals, how to file to run, filing deadlines, messaging, and fundraising, and all the things that you would see in a campaign, but it's a nonpartisan resource. But I think that I love most about the training is the Christian ethics that are sewn throughout that training to teach people.

This is how you run well. But importantly, too, this is how you lead. well. Once you get elected to office, we've seen many, many elected officials who we see on the campaign trail and we think that they're good, noble, principled people. But then when they get to that office, it's like looking at a completely different person. And so we want to invest in not just building good candidates. I want them to become good public leaders. And so we do all this training, but one of the things that we launched a couple years ago, that is my favorite thing about what the American Council does in counties throughout California in the West Coast is we do monthly prayer

breakfasts in each county where Christian elected officials come and we talk, we pray, we break bread for an hour. And it has been so unique to see the discipleship that has come out of these prayer breakfast. I'll give you a quick example. The one that I have in Placer County, we have anywhere from 40 to 60 elected officials that come every single month for breakfast and prayer. We call it AA for elected officials because they go around the room and just talk about what's going on in their world, in their office, in their family. And we partner. We believe in the power of prayer. And so we pray with them. But I will never forget the prayer breakfast after the Charlie Kirk assassination. We had met and I was a friend of Charlie Kirk. He did a lot with the American

council and I sit in the room and you can just feel the weight and the somberness of all of these leaders. And I ended up speaking for 15, 20 minutes to all of these elected officials who say they're Christian, many in practice, but some just by history, some just by culture, some by association. And I just made a very simple statement that if you say you're a follower of Christ, it has to be demonstrated in your life because you never know when your last breath is going to come. There was a president of a school district who'd been attending for three or four months, and she was Christian, but had a mouth on her, had a mouth on her, and it was pretty rough around the edges.

And she came up to me at the end and said, I need to make my life right with Christ. And so I invited her to church with me, started attending church. family got baptized. She is currently going through the Bible in a year, and on her Facebook profile, every day she's posting about what she's learning about the God who loves her and has changed her life. So we're not just about building good candidates, good political leaders, we're discipling elected officials. And seeing the fruit of what that has done in the lives and the hearts and souls of some of these candidates and elected officials has been honoring. to see. Lessons from Paul is a 90-day devotional.

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encouragement, and journaling prompts, and space to write, helping you apply each day's reading to your actual life. Request your copy with your gift of $25 or more. at Alan Jackson.com or call 800 8805102. You brought up a topic that I think is worth just a moment's exploration. You created some categories that were all under the general umbrella of a Christian. And not everybody listening may have thought of that in those terms. But I would agree with you. I think you can be, I call them generic Christians.

You don't declare yourself Buddhist or Muslim. And you live in a country where Christianity is, still kind of the primary faith. So you just, yeah, I'm Christian. And on the other end of that is somebody who's purposely made Jesus Lord of their lives and submitted themselves to the authority of his authority. And there's a whole spectrum between those positions. So how do you, because we've seen enough public officials, I hear these lines like, you know, personally, privately, I'm a Christian. But in my public life, I have a responsibility to my broader constituents. So I'm going to vote in an ungodly way.

They don't say the ungodly way, but it's what they do. So how do you coach people in your leadership school? How do you help them identify where those values come from? I mean, there's a lot of diversity amongst Christians. You know, I live in the South. So there's some very conservative Christians who, if you drink anything other than water, you're suspect. And then there's some segments of the Christian church where you can, Jack Daniels is your friend and everything in between. So in your leadership school, how do you coach them to lead, understanding the diversity in that community, but understanding what it means to be a disciple of Jesus?

Yeah, I'm reminded of the Gospels and you have the disciples watching Jesus feed this large crowd. And I like to compare the two as I ask the question, are you a crowded Christian or are you a disciple? because the crowded Christian responds and wants more miracles because they want more food. They're not following Jesus because they're surrendering to them. They're following Jesus because they want more bread. And how Jesus responds as he's talking to the disciples, he asks them, are you going to leave too? And the disciples respond and say, where else would we go? And it's this position, this posture, this difference between are we pursuing, are we pursuing,

doing God because it's advantageous to our constituents? You know, you're in the South running on a Christian platform. Or are you totally rejecting your faith in the public square because it is also advantageous? Or are you someone who follows Christ to the point that it requires something of you? Or are you like the disciples who say, I have nowhere else to go? And you look at that and I'm brought to the place of saying, And well, the Bible teaches us really clearly what the relationship between our personal conviction and public demonstration is.

There's no separation. There's not a sacred, secular divide that, you know, you love to hear that in the church, but it impacts everything. And people that have been transformed by Jesus know that because it impacts how they see people, how they see themselves, how they treat people, how they lead, how they love. it impacts every gamut of their personal life and of their worldview. And so for elected officials, for candidates who make the decision, well, yes, I'm personally a Christian, but because I'm representing this constituency that's not all Christian, I can't

bring that into the public square. My question is, where have you read that in scripture? Because I see no example, none, of someone who utilized their politics in such a way where there was the Christian John and then the political John. They were married together because a true transformation of your heart, of your mind, and of your soul changes everything, including how you lead in politics. Yeah, I agree. I think your choice of married is a really good example. You know, if we bifurcate our lives and I'm only married when I'm at home, but when I leave the house, they take off my wedding ring. Yeah. Yeah. My marriage is a sham. Yeah. And if your faith only works

when you're sitting in church for a worship service, it's a joke. Yeah. It's got to be a part of the breadth of our lives. Yeah. So five years from today, God moves beyond Tanner's wildest dreams. What does the American Council look like? Well, I would love to see the American Council be a leading voice for the church in politics across the nation. You know, we've seen this incredible blessing. God's opened up so many doors in California and on the West Coast. But I know that there's more. And if we can do that, I said at the beginning, if we can do that in California, we can do that anywhere. And so I believe that God has given me a burden to begin to multiply this and steward it in such a way where we see this not only in the south and on the west coast, but across the nation, all centered on this one idea of building.

leaders and specifically building leaders in public responsibility. And so in five years, I would love to see the American Council be the most effective leadership institute that is sending thousands, tens of thousands of Christian men and women, pastors, moms and dads and dads, aunts and uncles into school boards and into city councils and into the state legislator and in Congress to ultimately. fulfill Jeremiah 29 across the nation. Well, go bigger, go home. That's right.

I like it. Our God can handle our imaginations, I promise. We always try to leave our audience with what can we do. So you've got an audience that's probably going to be more in the southeast than you're accustomed to in central California. What can we do? How do we take some first steps towards this while you're getting the American Council built out? How do we start to move? Yeah.

Well, the first obvious one is prayer. I do believe in the power of prayer. And we have a lot of opposition. We've got full-time attorneys because of the work that we do. And we're constantly in a position of having adversaries in culture. And so prayer, prayer for safety for our team, for myself. But then also engaging. You know, we have opportunities for people to serve.

We have a dozen classes online for people that want to know more on what it looks like, to have a biblical worldview. in politics, maybe you're, you know, have a audience member that's thinking about running themselves. We have training for them. So engaging in our material and our content, but then partnering financially. You know, our capacity at this point is staff. We want to see this expand outside of California. And so we're strategically looking at places like Tennessee and Texas. And so you can go to the American Council.com to learn more about all the volunteer opportunities, all the resources, and how they can partner with what God is doing.

So the best place to get more information is the American Council.com. Yeah. Very good. Tanner DeBella, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you. I appreciate you visiting Tennessee. It's an honor to be with you. We'll have you back when there's some fruit in this arena.

Yes. Amen. Amen. Exciting stuff. Culture and Christianity, folks, is not meant to stay inside the church and just be a Bible study about the first century or the 10th century BC. We are writing a God story for this generation. And I'm excited to see what God has done. doing and Tanner's adding a new chapter to it. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you, Pastor.

Thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure and subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministries YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity podcast. You can do that on Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith. We can change our culture. I'll see you next. time.